1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to an athletic training device. More specifically, it relates to an athletic training net adapted to suspend from a garage door.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Year round athletic training, particularly in baseball and softball, is a necessity for maximizing an athlete's potential to compete at the highest level. Consistent year round training, however, can be difficult to maintain given the changes in weather and the high cost and low availability of indoor training facilities. In addition, it can be difficult for athletes with a busy schedule to find time to travel to training facilities and travel times inherently take away from training time.
Currently, there exist several athletic training devices for providing at home training. Some examples include U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,444, U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,776, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,291, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,266. Each of these patents discloses a training device suspended to a garage door or a garage door opening and several include a plurality of pockets/sleeves for receiving and securing a ball or similar sports object. Hereinafter a ball or similar sports object will be collectively referred to as a “projectile.” Each of these training devices, however, fails to disclose a simple, inexpensive, and easy to use storage sleeve affixed to both an upper end of the training device and a garage door.
Accordingly, what is needed is a training net having a simple, inexpensive, and easy to use storage sleeve adapted to affix to the inside of a garage door. However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the field of this invention how the shortcomings of the prior art could be overcome.
All referenced publications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Furthermore, where a definition or use of a term in a reference, which is incorporated by reference herein, is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate disclosure of the invention, Applicants in no way disclaim these technical aspects, and it is contemplated that the claimed invention may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.
The present invention may address one or more of the problems and deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. However, it is contemplated that the invention may prove useful in addressing other problems and deficiencies in a number of technical areas. Therefore, the claimed invention should not necessarily be construed as limited to addressing any of the particular problems or deficiencies discussed herein.
In this specification, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.